The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In addition to the various existing debit and credit cards, the Bank of Bhutan Limited (BoBL) will soon launch the VISA corporate credit card (domestic and international).
The VISA corporate credit card is expected to facilitate the corporate fund management and also help make cash less transactions.
The corporate credit cards, a BoBL representative said, will help mid and large-scale business management to monitor and analyze their travel and entertainment expenses. The corporate credit card will offer an advance reporting and analysis of individual card expenditure, which means less administration tallying.
The bank is targeting 10 corporations by end of this year and will cover the rest of eligible organization by 2014.
Corporate credit cards would bear the name of the user (employee of the corporation) and will be used like any other credit card, except that a corporation will have to apply for the cards for their employees.
The card will then be used by the employee for official work, as decided by the corporation. The payment of the card bill will be made by the corporation and not by the user.
While the domestic corporate credit card have the same function as domestic credit card used by the banks clients, however, for the international corporate credit card, the spends on this card in foreign currency will be as approved by RMA.
The corporate credit card will enable an organization to manage the travel, tour, and other official expenses made by its employees. It can be used for official ticket booking, hotel booking, and payments for official functions. In other words, any official expenses, where officials are required to make payment by cash or cheques, can be paid by corporate credit cards. As the bank will provide list of all expenses incurred on its corporate cards, organization can manage or control its expenditure. For employees, instead of carrying cash and travelers cheques on official tour, they can use the card.
Corporations and other organisations can avail the facility by applying for it with BoBL and sign an agreement. Cards will be issued to the employees whose names are decided by the organizations like business houses, government organizations and NGO’s among others.
BoBL’s future plan is e-commerce where people will be able to book airline tickets, tour, and hotels online through their MasterCard and VISA card. The bank also plans to eventually start internet banking facility to pay the telephone bills, electricity bills, and taxes, etc. online.
